Endgame Books

Theoretical Rook Endgames

Rook endgames are the single most important endgame to study, for one blunt reason: they are the kind you will face most often over the board. As the saying goes, working on them gives the biggest bang for your buck — and this book, by world-class grandmaster Sam Shankland, sets out to be the clearest, best-organised guide to them ever written.

Shankland’s method has two layers. First, the vital "set positions" you simply must know by heart — the Lucena, the Vancura, the key drawing and winning formations. Then, more valuably, a framework of rules and guidelines that lets you assess a theoretical rook endgame you have not memorised and still find the right path. The goal is understanding, not rote: you finish knowing both which positions to commit to memory and how to reason about the rest.

The coverage is systematic and complete, marching from single-pawn endings through the great practical battlegrounds — rook in front of, beside, and behind the passed pawn — to multi-pawn structures and pawnless endings, with a foreword by endgame authority Karsten Müller.

Demanding but exceptionally clear, this is essential study for any ambitious club player or tournament competitor who wants to stop throwing away half-points in the most common endgame of all.

Originally published at the beginning of the 20th century as part of a series for beginners on all phases of the chess game, this little book contains samples of all types of endgames that beginners or inexperienced players will greatly benefit from studying.

With 124 well-chosen positions, the author illustrates the fundamental knowledge of chess endgames that all players should master.

The material has been reexamined and lightly edited by FIDE Master Carsten Hansen.

Endgame Labyrinths presents the reader with 1002 challenging studies selected and truncated, with their usefulness for the practical player in mind. It is common for studies to be extended by less interesting manoeuvres or by incomprehensible sequences, before the main themes come into play. The studies in this book have been pruned to leave the reader with 1002 clear and solvable challenges.

A few years of extensive selection, analysis, reselection, reanalysis and refining have gone into putting together the study book for the practical player with the most value ever.

Steffen Nielsen is the reigning World Champion in endgame composition. His creativity and aesthetics in his compositions have had a massive influence on modern competition. He is a strong club player, with a good understanding of the difficulties practical players face over the board. Steffen is also a life-long supporter of the football club AaB, which is less successful...

GM Jacob Aagaard is one of the leading chess writers and trainers of his generation. His students have played successfully at all levels and continue to do so. His books are used all over the world, by top players and amateurs alike.

"Absolute Gold" – GM Anish Giri

In this book, German-English Grandmaster Mieses has selected 125 interesting positions from games played by various masters such as Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Lasker, Marshall, Nimzowitsch, Pillsbury, Rubinstein, Steinitz, Tarrasch, Mieses himself and many more from the classic period of chess up to the mid-1930.

The material is split into three sections: The Opening, The Middlegame, and The Endgame.

All of the examples and the analysis have been re-examined by Carsten Hansen, often adding a fascinating new perspective to these classic games.

There is lots of exciting material to examine and learn from for dedicated students.

All through his career Jan Timman has been captivated by the mystery and splendour of endgame studies. Even during his most successful and busy years as a world-class player, Timman continued to compose studies and admire those of others. For him, there has never been any doubt that his journeys in this magical world helped him to grow as a player.

In this fascinating book, first published in 2011, Timman has collected studies by other composers and explains in his lucid style how they inspired him to create dozens of brand-new studies.

Timman has revised the book for this new edition. With the help of engines, Timman discovered that a few studies needed to be corrected or had alternative solutions. He removed six studies and replaced another six with better versions. And fourteen new studies have been added, two of which are published here for the first time.

Jan Timman is a former world championship candidate who rose to number two on the FIDE world rankings. He is the author of several highly acclaimed bestsellers, such as Timman’s Titans and Max Euwe’s Best Games. He was awarded the title of FIDE Master of Composition in 2022.

Everyone knows they should work on their endgame play. So many hard-earned advantages are squandered in ‘simple’ endings... But, for a good playing ending, necessary to precisely calculate. This book can help to improve your skills and calculation in endings. In this book, we can find a lot of famous endings played in practical games and how some of the top grandmasters coped with them. Improve your knowledge endings with this book. Start to calculate, and learn ending rules!

300 tactical puzzles from real endgames!

After the opening and the middlegame, Gods have placed the endgame!

This book touches upon an important but rarely covered topic of "tactics in the endgame". Books on this subject are either rare or still not out there!

You are not alone if you have you lost games from winning positions because you did not spot your opponent's tactical shot. Or maybe you missed a tactic of your own? Inspite of your material advantage, you could not bring home the full point in the end? Practice is your only friend and coach.

This book aims to give you ample practice from tactical endgame positions to really convert that loss into a draw or a draw into a win! Watch out for the Knight forks. Check how other players sacrifice their valuable pieces to ensure the pawn promotes. Or the simplification tactics to win a won endgame!

Unlike other books which offer a high number of generic puzzles, this book has carefully chosen and manually selected high quality puzzles from real games.

Chess Masters stuff as many positions and patterns in their head as possible and this book gives you an opportunity to do that!

HIGHLIGHTS

• 300 puzzles from real games! These puzzles are not made up. The themes/patterns can occur in your games too! 

• The puzzles are broken into 4 levels and are suited for players of all strength 

• Alternative lines are annotated so you are not left wondering why a certain move was not plausible 

• The solution is placed immediately after the puzzle and also has a accompanying diagram so you can easily visualize the variation on the board without moving back and forth 

• Each solution is marked with an arrow so you can easily scan the first move without having to read the complete notation. This can also be a good way to get a hint for the first move without revealing the complete solution

No matter your skill level, this book is the right practice companion for you!

There are many books devoted to basic endgames, even from the Middle Ages. Principles of typical endgames (such as keeping the rook behind a passed pawn, not setting pawns on the same colored squares as your bishop’s, distant pawns being more dangerous than central ones etc.) are well known too. But what about “complex endgames”? I have in mind endgames with at least two pieces on each side; well I don’t find them often nor sufficiently well-explained in the past! It is exactly this fact (together with my passion and great endgame experience) that has motivated me to write this book (many friends simply call me “Endgame Wizard” ).

Over two decades of working as a coach has confirmed my opinion that endgames are the biggest problem for young players. Today, in the computer era with a lot of information easily provided, youngsters all over the world rather play blitz, or solve some tactical puzzles in a manner that is “the faster the better” (or even spend time on some other chess disciplines). All of this neglects the basis of chess – the importance of endgames! It is not uncommon that everyday you can be witness to some strange endgame misunderstanding, even at the top level.

This is why I consider some of my favorite endgame books based on logic as the best I’ve ever read – I learned the endgame from some of the best endgame players and authors. And this is why I want to fill that gap in chess literature and to share my devotion, ideas, principles, opinions with you! I hope you will enjoy this material and I am pretty sure you will broaden your endgame horizons.

Magnus Carlsen’s brilliant endgame play is one of the key reasons for his success. The World Chess Champion can win positions which look drawn to anybody else. And more than any other player, he is able to save bad endings.

For this second volume of Magnus Carlsen Endgame Virtuoso, International Master Tibor Karolyi has selected Carlsen’s best endgames from 2018-2022, whereas the first volume covered 1999-2017. Reviewing these new games and explaining what Magnus was doing, the author was thoroughly impressed. Even Carlsen, who in 2017 was already the best endgame player of all time with Anatoly Karpov, had managed to improve his skills further.

Carlsen has it all. He can find deep ideas, play very technically, and is exceptionally well-versed in strategic and tactical endgames. The author is convinced that this new selection contains even better and more instructive games than Volume one.

Karolyi explains the general ideas in the games and gives concrete variations. Exploring these annotated endgames, you will soon get a good sense of what is happening. You will find out that Carlsen does not rush unless it is necessary. You will learn how Carlsen increases the pressure and uses all available resources. And you will see that sooner or later, his opponents will start playing second-best moves, feeling uncomfortable, following up with some dubious decisions, and, finally, cracking.

Endgame Virtuoso Magnus Carlsen - Volume 2 is a highly instructive, inspiring and entertaining book. It will help you appreciate Magnus’ endgame magic and improve your skills in this important game phase.

Tibor Karolyi is an International Master, a former Hungarian Champion, a prolific chess author and a renowned trainer. For New In Chess, he wrote about Karpov and Carlsen.

In this book, the authors aim to assist the reader in becoming better at finding combinations and creative solutions, constructing plans, and calculating long, forcing variations. For the purpose of instruction, the material is based on the creative output of the Austrian International Master in Chess Composition Alois Wotawa (1896-1970), using his endgame compositions from various works and publications.

This is not a book for lower-rated players and newcomers to chess as the material is seriously complex and challenging. But ambitious players will find an incredible source of interesting material that is carefully annotated.

Mastering the endgame is a fundamental aspect of chess proficiency, and Jesús de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know is an invaluable resource for achieving that milestone. The author has taken the 100 most frequently encountered endgames and broken them down into concise, easy-to-digest concepts. His clear explanations focus on building a deep understanding of the material rather than relying on rote memorization. 

By the end of studying and practicing the exercises in this book, you will significantly enhance your endgame skills, be able to navigate your games toward favorable endgame positions, and improve your performance.

The book is highly regarded among players ranging from intermediate enthusiasts to grandmasters because of its exceptional clarity, practical content, and comprehensive coverage. It also has a companion volume, The 100 Endgames You Must Know Workbook, which provides additional exercises that reinforce the covered concepts. 

Any good chess coach will tell you to study the endgame. Improving your knowledge of the ‘third phase’ in a chess game will bring you many extra half or even full points.

After the success of his award-winning classics, Chess Strategy for Club Players and Attacking Chess for Club Players Herman Grooten has now written an equally instructive endgame manual. He teaches you how to understand the themes of an endgame, and find the right moves based on your understanding.

International Master Herman Grooten learned about endgames the hard way, as many good players have. Early in his career, he realized there was a lot to be gained in this undervalued part of the game. Building on his experience as a player and coach, Grooten takes an original approach to convey his message: the endgames are divided according to theme, not chess material. This is a novel, but very effective way to learn the ins and outs, since many themes can occur with different material balances.

The material is richly illustrated with many examples from practical play, as well as endgame studies, which present the motifs in their purest and most attractive form. The result is a lively and highly instructive guide to the endgame.